Take the opportunity to pursue an individual research project of your choosing full-time or part-time, with expert guidance and personal supervision from a member of our history team.

Our academics have an established tradition of internationally recognised research excellence in the fields of social and cultural history, political and diplomatic history, and military, maritime and naval history. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, 97.6% of the History team’s research outputs (primarily books and journal articles) were considered to be internationally recognised in terms of significance, originality and rigour.

This full time or part time doctoral programme is suitable for people who have a particular research question or topic in mind, and wish to explore this through independent study in order to produce an original contribution to the subject. If you aspire to a research career this is the most appropriate research degree to undertake.

If you do not already have a masters degree, you may be interested in one of our masters level research degrees – for instance, our ResM History (which enables a transfer directly into the PhD programme if you are making excellent progress), or else an MPhil degree. Further details about the University’s research degree awards.

You will be guided by a small supervisory team of academic experts under the direction of a Director of Studies. You will be expected to fully engage with skills development and training and to present your research in a range of scholarly contexts.

Your PhD will be assessed via submission of either a written thesis (approximately 80,000 words), or one that combines critical writing with artistic, creative and/or professional practice, and a viva voce (an oral examination).